1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer which is capable of printing a plurality of user-specified print jobs, and more particularly to a computer program product which filters a standard printer data stream to perform the user-specified print job. The present invention also relates to a graphic user interface which may be included with the computer program product.
2. Discussion of the Background
One of the increasing demands placed on computer related equipment in both the home, school and work environments is an increased flexibility to perform a variety of tasks. Currently, printers are utilized to print reports, facsimiles, books, pamphlets, overlays, labels, graphics, etc. Each of these items are best presented in a unique user-specified format on papers and/or materials as decided by the user.
Currently, each printer includes a printer driver which is loaded onto a computer. Then, a user of the computer can print a selected document or other item using the printer""s printer driver. However, printer manufacturers are constantly required to update printer drivers to meet the expanding market needs, which results in higher costs.
Further, a user using a particular printer is limited in the amount of print options. For example, standard print drivers allow a user to print on different paper sizes, to print in a landscape or portrait format, etc. Thus, with a standard print driver, the user is limited to these options. However, consumers require a printer which is capable of printing a variety of print jobs. Currently, printer manufacturers intermittently develop new print drivers in an attempt to meet this demand.
In more detail, FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional set-up of a computer 2 and a printer 6 attached via a cable and/or other network 4. The printer 6 includes a connection port 7 for attaching the cable and/or other network 4 to the printer 6. Thus, a user using the computer 2 can select an item or other object to be printed on the printer 6.
FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a conventional application 10 interfacing the printer 6. The conventional application 10 is hosted on an operating system 14 resident on the computer 2. When the user invokes a print command from the application 10, the document or other item to be printed is communicated to a printer driver 12. The printer driver 12 is a printer and operating system specific software interface. The operating system 14 sends signals in accordance with instructions from the printer driver 12 to the printer port and/or network card 18 via a connection 16, thus placing signals corresponding to the document or other item to be printed on the cable and/or other network 4 connected to the printer 6.
However, as discussed above, the print options available to the user are limited to those which are supplied with the printer driver 12 loaded onto the computer 2. Thus, if the user wishes to have a print option which is not included in the printer driver 12, the user must purchase or obtain and load onto the computer 2 a new printer driver having the desired print option. This is disadvantageous because the installation and configuration of a printer driver on a computer is cumbersome, time-consuming, and generally requires special instructions and/or a qualified technician.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to solve the above-noted problems.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a printer which is capable of printing a plurality of user-specified print jobs.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a computer program product, which filters a standard printer data stream to perform the user-specified print job.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a graphic user interface which may be included with the computer program product.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of printing using a computer program product which filters the standard print data stream to perform the user-specified print job.
To achieve these and other objects, the present invention provides a filter which filters a standard printer data stream to perform a user-specified print job. The filter is typically a computer program, which receives data output from a printer driver, filters or transforms the received data in some desired way, and then outputs the filtered or transformed data stream to the printer.
The present invention also provides a graphical user interface to assist a user in operating the computer program. In particular, the graphical user interface according to the present invention includes a plurality of pop-up menus having various display controls to control the operation of the computer program.